110 
ARRU ISLANDS. 
performed hy native teacherSj who are sent there by the 
missionary" cstablishmentB of AmboyDa^ the government 
allowing thera a small salary. Wadia, a little island 
near the northern extreme, is, however, occupied almost 
exclusively by Mohammedans^ but they do not seem to 
make much progress in gaiuing proselytes. The pagan 
inhabitants show a greater tendency towards Christianity, 
as some of our festivals have been adopted by them, but 
apparently without understanding theii- meaning. The 
labourf of the Dutch missionaries have been chiefly 
exerted among the brown -coloured tribes of the Mokiccas, 
the difficulty they have experienced in finding native 
teachers who were wilhng to reside among wild tribes of 
a different race, being the chief cause of their apparent 
neglect of the Papuans. The opening that was afforded 
by the existence of semi-Malayan communities on the 
westem islands of the Arru Group, seems to have been 
availed of at an early period of the Dutch occupation of 
the Moluccas, as some of the neat little churches which 
are found near the chief villages, have dates inscribed 
over their doors which show that they were erected in the 
eiu-ly part of the last century. One of the objects of 
Lieutenant Kolflf's expedition of 1826 was to inquire into 
the state of the Christian Church in the more remote 
islands of the IMoluccan Seas, which had been neglected 
during the troubles occasioned by the last European war ; 
and for this purpose lie was accompanied hy the Rev. 
Mr. Kam, the head of the Dutch Church at Amboyna, 
whose name is prominently connected with missionary 
labours in the Moluccas. 
A full description of the Arm Islands and their 
